Let's move this forward at last!

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By AM Architecture Office Zagreb

High goals are good. Sometimes they can also be achieved in small steps.

We are here talking about and proposing; two or one additional levels plus a green&solar roof plus an elevator on the building with the address 246 EAST 51 STREET, MANHATTAN 10022, New York, which means Midtown East (near Turtle Bay), but we have also the neighboring houses in mind and a repetition could be a way for achieving the desired greater volume or, put another way, an impact great enough.

But here we are, in our chosen example, with the allowable residential FAR (Floor Area Ratio) of 4 (it is 3.79 already) to make an impossible mission out of it and we are left with only one seemengly weak tool -- adding our green roof area to the site area and calling it open amenities. Naively? Maybe, but how otherwise to achieve such a (nowadays) usual thing as an elevator or greening those roofs where it doesn't pay to do so? Are people really doomed to live IN EVERY WAY limited by year 1920's building standards? Now it's an opportunity to change that and this could be the right way that forms a fertile "Producer with City" partnership.

So we can get a green roof of a max. area of 2500 square feet or 230 m2. By adding just 40% of that (maybe such a thing could be negotiated with the authorities) to approximately 4000 square feet of the Lot Area, we are getting 5000 sqft which then goes just about four times in the Building Area of 15000 plus the two new levels 2500 + 2500, alltogether 20000 sqft.

We are also taking some space away from the Lot but not much; The elevator probably has to stick out 60 cm from the west elevation of the building and we decided to occupy the approx 80 cm in depth over the old flat roof's cantilever because we get much more appropriate area for the street-side appartments that way and we believe it looks better to repeat that cantilever motif with our new level(s) in some way.

Note: The Axonometry and Interior were drawn after the floor plan contours of the existing appartments, available on StreetEasy. We only got 3 so the 4th was mirrored for the Axonometry. Floor plans and all 2d drawings are drawn after the contour found on ZoLa and NYC Oasis.

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City Above the City architecture competition

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Metsä Wood challenged architects and students around the world to push the boundaries of modern wood building design in the urban environment. Entrants from 40 countries created their Plan B to urbanisation using wood (Kerto® LVL – laminated veneer lumber) as the main material. The task was to design a wooden extension to an existing urban building. The entries were designed to 69 cities worldwide.